Arthur took good care of his family ever since he had taken over the farm and he had even managed to have plenty of free time for his wife and kids. After Jacob was born, he had all of the love and care he needed to grow strong and healthy over the first 10 years of his life.
At 10 years old, Jacob had already been learning about how to run the farm for about three years since he had been big enough at 7 to carry things for his older brother, who was now 12, and had just started being able to work on little things without direct supervision. There was always a hand within yelling distance, so the kids were never too far from help.
Since the economy of the village had been improving over the past few years, Arthur had to let some of the helping hands go to keep the farm profitable enough to support his family. He had not had any more children yet, so having to work a few more hours per day was not a big deal, especially since Arthur and Caleb were now in the field with him. He ended up spending just as much time with them, if not more, to teach them how the farm worked and what chores he wanted them to take care of.
While he did not get to spend much time with his daughter, it was common in their culture for the mother to be spending the majority of the day with the daughters anyway. There was not many occasions for father and daughter to bond on the farm to begin with, so he was not missing out on anything out of the ordinary for their culture.
Jacob was wandering around the hen house just before winter as his 11th birthday approached. He had not even the tiniest thought in his little head as he was skipping around and humming to himself while checking the chickens' reactions to his presence. They had learned that the little munchkin would feed them even when it was not time to eat if they came out and watched him, so they tended to react positively to his shenanigans.
Occasionally, the chickens would bawk or cluck as they scratched the ground looking for an appetizing bug to sate their hunger as they waited for the small child to throw them some scraps. Jacob was more than willing to give them some food just to watch them peck at it because their heads looked funny and made him laugh.
As he picked up what looked like an orange watermelon rind, he suddenly got a splitting headache that caused his vision to blur. He managed to throw the rind to the chickens, but then he fell to his knees as he doubled over in unimaginable pain.
"GHAAAAAAA!!!"
Jacob yelled louder than he ever had up to this point as a 10-year-old child. The chickens that had just started to peck at the rind got spooked as they started to bawk and cluck even louder than normal due to the condition of the small child right outside their yard.
Jacob started to throw up at this point as the pain reached a new level, and he started to realize what was happening.
"FUCK! Why does this hurt so bad?!"
Usually, gaining memories of a past life did not inflict pain, but Jacob was regaining them due to the strength of his soul instead of his karma. Without the strange, benevolent will of the universe, the merging of a previous life with even a 10-year-old mind was bound to cause some problems.
Since his soul had been receiving nourishment from knowing the name of such a powerful being in the universe with his spirit for the past 10 years, it had managed to become strong enough to access the deep memories that would normally be locked away after reincarnation without sufficient karma.
Since his gain in memory was due to the soul having sufficient strength, all of his memories flooded from the core of his being into the surface, where a forceful merger was undertaken in the brain, which is intrinsically connected to the surface of the soul. Luckily for Jacob, he had not lived long in his first life so he passed out after reaching his threshold for pain.
As the nearest hand found Jacob, he had already fainted and had started to convulse. It was not the first time the man had seen something like this, so he immediately started to work on making Jacob comfortable while he made sure he did not bite his tongue and called for help.
"I could use some help over here!"
The farm hand waved to someone else who had heard the yelling, and when he got to Jacob as well, the two men carried him to the house. He had stopped convulsing as they picked him up, and they quickly had to adjust for the small limp body to make sure his head had support.
"Man, that scared me, at least he didn't shake very long. I wonder what happened?" The first farmhand was talking nervously as he carried Jacob with the help of the second.
"It doesn't look like he got hurt, but we'd better get him to his mother. She will want to take care of him for a while." The second farmhand was more than willing to engage in conversation as he was also a bit shaken up from the scene.
The first guy continued on nervously, "I am just glad I heard him before he passed out. I would hate for him to wake up lying in his own puke."
As they made it up to the house, the second guy replied. "Yeah, hopefully he just needs some rest."
They knocked on the door as they were talking, and May quickly answered the door with a loud gasp.
"What happened to my baby!" she yelled as she started looking all over him for damages and feeling his cold, clammy skin to try to deduce what was wrong.
She looked up at the first farm hand and yelled, "Ellis! What happened?"
Ellis, the first farm hand who found Jacob, told May what he had seen and heard, and the second farm hand confirmed what he had also witnessed.
While they were walking, May had them bring Jacob to the bathroom so she could clean him up and put him to bed.
"Thank you, boys, for bringing my baby in. I can handle it from here, but please go get Arthur. I think he would want to know what is going on."
They both assured her with a "yes ma'am" as they headed out the door to go get Arthur.
After they left, May washed Jacob up and got him into bed with his covers pulled over him to help warm him up. Whatever had happened to him, it seemed to make him cold, and she didn't want him to get slosh cough (their name for pneumonia).
She also grabbed some incense to burn, which was commonly used to prevent the slosh cough. It smelled of cinnamon and peppermint, which seemed to open the airways and would also mask any more puke if he needed to vomit again.
Before leaving her baby boy, May knelt next to the bed.
"Almighty forces of healing, heed the prayer of a humble servant. Please help my baby boy through this sickness. By my own will, I ask for your strength in this time of uncertainty."
When her prayer ended, a faint golden glow emanated around Jacob's entire body and became brighter at his head. After the light faded, Jacob looked much less clammy, and his face looked to have relaxed in sleep.
Seeing the old spell that was passed down from mother to daughter working, May stood back up with difficulty and dusted off her blouse, then kissed Jacob's forehead before quietly leaving him to rest.